Soulknife (Rogue/Sorcerer)

[Twilight Semner]

Prerequisites:

12 levels of Rogue, 12 levels of Sorcerer, Weapon Focus (Shortsword, Longsword, or Bastard Sword), Iron Will, +20 Concentration, and the Slippery Mind feat before level 25.


Spells:

For certain spells, those listed below, the Soulknife's caster level is equal to (Rogue levels + Sorcerer levels + Legendary Levels). For all other spells, normal spellcasting rules apply.

Level 1:
Magic Weapon (special, see below)

Level 2:
Flame Weapon
Shock Weapon

Level 3:
Keen Edge
Needle Point

Level 6:
Tenser's Transformation (does not require 3 levels of a Tier 1 LBAB class, 1 turn/level duration)

Special Abilities:

Mind Blade:
    Casting magic weapon on a targeted Short Sword, Longsword or Bastard sword replaces it with a mind blade forged by the psionic powers of the Soulknife. The Mind Blade receives +1 enhancement per 4 Soulknife levels, +1 per spell focus in Enchantment (to a maximum of +20 with Paragon Spell Focus: Enchantment). The Mind Blade can be enhanced by a variety of special effects described below, as well as deals bonus Psionic damage (see Psychic Strike).

Mind Blade Enhancement:
    The Soulknife can enhance his Mind Blade with a variety of effects, listed below. Only one such effect can be active at a given time, unless the Soulknife has 40 levels of Sorcerer (including LLs). Soulknives with control-class sorcerer can apply a second Mind Blade enhancement, but can only have one damage enhancement (Psychokinetic or Collision) and one spell-like enhancement (Suppression, Wounding, Bodyfeeder, or Soulbreaker) active at a time. Activating such an effect is a swift action and can only be done when a swift action is available. Each different enhancement is applied using a different simtool command listed below. These enhancements only apply to weapons with Magic Weapon cast.

    Psychokinetic:
        - Bonus 1d4 Psionic damage per 12 Soulknife levels (stacking with Psychic Strike up to a bonus of 20d4 Psionic damage). Does not require any additional spell knowledge. Activated with !skpsy.

    Collision:
        - Bonus 1 physical damage per 4 Soulknife levels (+15 physical damage at level 60). Requires knowledge of the spell Flensing. Activated with !skcol.

    Suppression:
        - On-hit Breach, bypassing Breach immunity at Soulknife level 60. Requires knowledge of the spell Spell Breach. Activated with !sksup.

    Wounding:
        - 1 Constitution damage per hit, no save. Requires knowledge of the spell Enervation. Activated with !skwou.

    Bodyfeeder:
        - Weapon gains +1 vampiric regeneration per 3 Soulknife levels (max of +20 at level 60). Requires knowledge of the spell Vampiric Touch. Activated with !skbod.

    Soulbreaker:
        - A failed Fortitude save applies 1d4 negative levels per hit (DC: 25 base + Dexterity modifier). Requires knowledge of the spell Energy Drain. Activated with !sksou.

Psychic Strike:
    Psychic Strike applies 1d4 bonus Psionic damage per 4 Soulknife levels (max 15d4 Psionic damage at level 60). Only applies to weapons with Magic Weapon applied.

Knife to the Soul:
    The Soulknife can sacrifice bonus dice from Psychic Strike to imbue his Mind Blade with Knife to the Soul. Using the simtool commands !damint, !damwis, and !damcha, with a number 0-4, sacrifices three times the number of Psionic damage dice to reduce the Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma of enemies hit by the base amount. Setting the modifier to 0 with any of the commands restores all bonus Psychic Strike damage and cancels the effect of Knife to the Soul.

[Twilight Semner]

Update: Toned down the psionic damage on Psychic Strike after realizing how insane the amount of damage would have been for a dual-wielder.

[bazukar]

It's an interesting idea, but I feel like it needs a little more...I'll think on it a bit. One problem jumps out right away and that is AB....with 12/12 on those 2 classes required the BAB is going to be really low. While tensers will mitigate the LBAB, nothing fixes BAB. There will need to be something to compensate for that.

Was this inspired at all by the psionic classes and abilities added in 3.0? If not you might want to look at those for some added ideas to give them some oomph. One ability that was available was deep impact, which changed it from AB vs AC to a touch attack to do melee damage. Something like that might mitigate the lower AB it would have. Not sure how that would function here though. Once per round wouldn't be enough. Drain spell slots to toggle it similar to a threader? A psionic point pool where each attack/ability drains points?

[desocupado]

AB (rogue 12 then sorc 8) = 9 + 4 = 13
Epic AB = 10
Leg = 15

38 - same as a tier 2 character, like a shadow dancer.
However attacks are either 13/13/8/3 13/13/8/ or 13/13/8/3 /13/8/3 // (as tenser gives 3 attacks)

Assuming rogue 25 we could add +1 with opportunist.

---

Consider Monk and shadow dancer (just with shadow step and evade) as possible pre-req classes as well.

[Twilight Semner]

Jan 4, 2015 8:25:11 GMT bazukar said:

It's an interesting idea, but I feel like it needs a little more...I'll think on it a bit. One problem jumps out right away and that is AB....with 12/12 on those 2 classes required the BAB is going to be really low. While tensers will mitigate the LBAB, nothing fixes BAB. There will need to be something to compensate for that.

Was this inspired at all by the psionic classes and abilities added in 3.0? If not you might want to look at those for some added ideas to give them some oomph. One ability that was available was deep impact, which changed it from AB vs AC to a touch attack to do melee damage. Something like that might mitigate the lower AB it would have. Not sure how that would function here though. Once per round wouldn't be enough. Drain spell slots to toggle it similar to a threader? A psionic point pool where each attack/ability drains points?

The quasi is actually based entirely on the 3.5e Psionic baseclass of the same name. All of the abilities are abilities that the class already had, I just adapted them to fit HG. AB should be mid to low 90s at level 60. I think there's a couple simple ways it could be increased. Either allow Opportunist to still work with the quasi, which would really only help short sword users, or you could simply add True Strike to their list of spells. I thought about using spell slots as a vehicle for power points, but the Soulknife doesn't actually use power points, so I opted against it.

[KnightErrant]

iirc esoteric damage (Psionic, Vile etc) can't be added to weapons...or at least not without some sort of complete overhaul of the weapon system.


KE.

[Twilight Semner]

If it would be easier to do non-integrated, I don't think that would necessarily be game-breaking. Psionic damage seems to fit this class best, so I would say to see it not be an option.